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For the last couple of days I've been working hard on the final chapters of the DI Andy Horton marine mystery crime novel number eight and I'm pleased to say that it's all coming together nicely. In addition to my normal stint at the keyboard of anything between two to three hours a day, I spent just over five hours solidly writing on Wednesday and seven hours yesterday.  Today, and over the weekend I shall be hard at it again, (pausing only for a trip to the hairdresser and a brisk walk to clear the head and stretch the legs) making sure that the ending works well before going back through the novel for the fourth revision, which might be the final one, although experience shows me that I usually do five revisions, the final one checking all the phrases, sentences and words. Even given that I do a fifth revision, and barring any major mishaps, I'm delighted to say that I'm on target to meet my deadline of finishing this DI Horton either by January or during Janu...

Yesterday I was invited to the Mayor Making Ceremony at Portsmouth Guildhall (UK) to see the new Lord Mayor, Cheryl Buggy, enthroned!  Cheryl is the Liberal Democrat Councillor for Eastney and Craneswater in Portsmouth. I'd no idea what to expect and it was a pleasant surprise to find the ceremony thoroughly enjoyable (and very full of pomp!) It kicked off with an opera singer, Jennifer Parker-Lummis, singing from the steps of Portsmouth Guildhall and what a stunning voice she had too. The Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines (Portsmouth) were playing to the audience inside the Guildhall. They are always a delight to hear. And  it was wonderful to hear the Portsmouth Music Service Sing Out Pompey choir ( children of about ten years old) sing three especially composed songs. Civic awards were presented to people who had done a lot of good work for the community and there was a great deal of  ceremonial business in installing the new Lord Mayor. I have kn...

Well I do, and I am sure that many other authors do too.  I am now at the final stage of the DI Andy Horton marine mystery police procedural novel, number seven in the series, and I am checking the words and phrases and making sure that everything hangs together. This should take me probably one more week depending on other commitments then it will be off to my editor.  At this stage I get the feeling of relief mixed with anxiety: is it good enough? Should I re-write one more time? Could I have changed anything? Too late when I’ve pressed the send button and it’s gone to my editor. I also experience a sadness. I've lived with Andy Horton and Sergeant Cantelli, with alpha male, Superintendent Uckfield and the ice maiden, DCI Lorraine Bliss for well over six months and I'm sorry to leave them. Solution?  Start the next DI Andy Horton. The ideas are there and soon I'll be mapping out the plot lines and thinking about sub plots and with this stage...

On Sunday I finished the third revisions of the DI Andy Horton crime novel (number seven in the series) and I am pleased with it.  The next stage is to go through the novel again and to check that everything is as it should be and to make sure that all the clues and red herrings are in place and the characters are behaving as they should even if that means they are misbehaving. It's a complex plot with subplots, as is my usual style, with more revealed in this novel about Jennifer Horton's disappearance.  It is set in Portsmouth and around Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, with some trips across the Solent in the police launch.  The police launch coming out of Portsmouth Commerical Ferry Port and HM Naval Base - Is DI Andy Horton on board with Sergeant Elkins and PC Ripley? Ventnor, Isle of Wight Now, as I start what I hope to be the final revisions, I will need to start working on a title. Hopefully one will come to me as I go th...

After bashing away at the keyboard over Christmas and the New Year I decided it was time to get out in the fresh air and exercise the legs instead of the fingers.  Yesterday my husband and I took off for the Isle of Wight where many of you know that a couple of my crime novels are set. Blood on the Sand an Inspector Andy Horton marine mystery crime novel, is set on the Island and yesterday my husband and I had a picnic lunch by Bembridge Lagoons where Andy meets up with Detective Superintendent Uckfield while investigating the murder of Owen Carlsson. The sun even came out for us at this beautiful spot while we ate a baguette lunch. ( Not so in the novel it's pouring with rain) In For The Kill , one of my thrillers is also set on the Isle of Wight, around Bembridge and Brading, and the protagonist, Alex Albury, also travels to the mainland to Portsmouth and Petersfield and even to Guernsey to track down the man who framed him for fraud and embezzlement and destroye...

Over seventy people attended the prize giving ceremony last night of the Wight Fair Writers Circle, Winter Short Story Writing Competition in Newport on the Isle of Wight.  Audience in waiting I was very honoured to be asked to  give a short talk at this wonderful event and to present the prizes to the adult category of the competition in the Castlehold Baptist Church and new reception rooms in Newport. I'm very grateful to Wightlink who generously sponsored my trip across to the Isle of Wight from the mainland at Portsmouth.  All proceeds from the competition, organised by Carol Bridgestock and the Wight Fair Writers Circle go to the Love Russia Charity, The Multiple Sclerosis Society and The Barely Born Appeal. Crime author Pauline Rowson giving a talk before the prize giving ceremony I was also delighted to sign copies of my novels, two of which are set on the Isle of Wight, a thriller In For The Kill and an I...

I managed to do a good chunk of writing over the weekend, in between making soup, bread, mince pies and doing a little Christmas shopping. Oh, and taking elderly mother out in the snow and ice to top up on her needs in case the snow stays around or we get more of it. Down here in the soft south, snow before Christmas is practically unheard of.  Yes, we've had the occasional flurry before the festive season but if we do get snow then it usually arrives after Christmas, sometimes on Boxing Day. The novelty now seems to have worn off, even the children aren't playing in the snow or building snowmen anymore; been there, done that, got the T shirt. But back to the writing. The new Inspector Andy Horton crime novel is coming along a treat. I'm on second revisions and it's shaping up well. For those who have asked me there is a little more in this novel about Andy's quest to find out what happened to his mother after she walked out on him and disappeared from his life wh...

The new Inspector Andy Horton marine mystery crime novel, Footsteps on the Sho re , is due to be published on 27 January 2011 and is now available to pre-order. It is set around the Solent area on the South Coast of England like the others in the series, with this particular one being set in Portsmouth, around Portchester Castle and the Hayling Island Coastal Nature Reserve.  I've been promising to post details about this latest crime fiction police procedural featuring my hunky DI, Andy Horton for ages so here it is. Friday the thirteenth begins badly for DI Andy Horton when he wakes to find his Harley has been vandalized and his boss, DCI Lorraine Bliss, has returned early from her secondment to HQ. Then, convicted murderer, Luke Felton, released on licence, is reported missing and a decomposed corpse is washed up in Portsmouth harbour. But before Horton can get a grip on either case, he’s called to a house where a woman he’d only met the day before has been brutally...

A nice day ahead and hopefully not too strenuous before a busy week with three talks and now three media interviews - the local newspaper called yesterday. They want to write a feature on me for next week, and take a photograph, which means I shall spend between now and then deciding what to wear! It's Christmas Cake day today though.  Not eating it but making it.  I can't believe it's that time of year again. The fruit has been soaking in sherry all night and later this morning I shall make the cake and then feed it a little bit of sherry each week until the grand cutting on Christmas Day. Yummee! In between baking I'll be working on making a top I've designed and squeeze in some writing of course, on Inspector Andy Horton marine mystery crime novel number seven.  It's still untitled but coming along nicely.  Now almost up to 60,000 words of the first draft.  And I'll also take a walk in the country to see the lovely autumn colours before the leaves fa...

Having used up tons of scraps of paper (re-cycled from having to print off reams of previous manuscripts) and having almost worn my pencil down to a stub, not to mention making my office look like a waste paper tip, I am now a great deal happier with the plot of the next Andy Horton police procedural marine mystery crime novel , which will be number seven in the series. That doesn't mean to say that what I have mapped out will stay as it is, oh no, I could easily and most probably will change my mind by the end of the novel. Such is the life of a crime writer. As the characters become more alive so their motivations might suggest other actions. I might also delve into some research that will take me in another direction. It's all good fun, as they say. I want to try and get  as much of the first draft written as I can before having to work on copy edits and proofs of the sixth Andy Horton novel, Footsteps on the Shore , which my publisher tells me is due to be...

I walked over the farm behind our house at the weekend and found a new sign had been erected marking the area of one of Britain's largest  Roman Temples, which is now in the middle of a wheat field, called Touncil Field, I believe.  The dry spring has exposed the outline of the temple built around 60AD, which was excavated between 1897 and 1907 and again between 1976 and 1978.  The farmer has kindly ploughed the outline of the temple and erected additional signs allowing people to walk around the temple, just as long as they keep to the paths and don't trample all over his crop. My husband and I duly obeyed his instructions and soon on this flat landscape that gives way to the sea in Chichester Harbour I found myself standing in the doorway of the temple. It's at times like this I wish I could travel back and see what it had been like then, and then return to the present day.  How different the area must have looked with hedgerow...

I'm off to the Express FM studio today to re-record my interview with Rob Richardson, which was first recorded two weeks ago but suffered a technical hitch, so we're doing it again.  I don't mind though.  It's always good fun talking to Rob Richardson who also runs a very lively writing group and web site called Write-Invite  which has some very exciting and rather unusual short story writing competitions.  I'm not sure when my interview will be broadcast, possibly next Tuesday evening between 7pm and 8pm, but I'll check this out and post something here. Meanwhile the new marine mystery crime novel (or as they call them in the States, my police procedural) is coming along quite nicely. I've written the first two chapters but there's still a lot of research to do yet before it all comes together.  P.S I'm very pleased VAT wasn't added on books in the Chancellor's budget, but not so pleased about the rate being increased on audio and e bo...

Helicopter involved in training task : "This is the dramatic moment when coastguards lowered a crewman onto the deck of Wightlink’s St Clare vessel on her journey between Fishbourne and Portsmouth." Wish I'd been on board to see it! Follow the above link and you'll see the photographs from the Isle of Wight County Press web site of a helicopter hovering over the ferry.  I love the idea as a possible scene from one of my marine mystery crime novels. Not sure how it would feature yet and even if it will eventually but it is from such ideas that the basis of a plot can emerge. I've used the Wightlink ferry in a couple of my novels: In For The Kill , The Suffocating Sea and Blood on the Sand. I've also done two book signings on board the St Clare, great fun. Here I am on the Bridge of the St Clare handing a signed copy of one of my crime novels to Captain Monk.

I had a very productive Easter beavering away at the next Inspector Andy Horton marine mystery crime novel (number six in the series) and I think one more revision after this and it will be done, especially now that I have changed the ending (again).  But this time it reads right!  My aim is to finish this novel by the end of April, and so far so good. You might recall that in a previous blog I was struggling to find a title for it and then two came together; typical, like waiting for a bus for ages and then several arrive at once. Having chosen a title for this new Andy Horton novel and tested it out on a couple of people though I'm not so sure it is the right one.  Mmm might need a bit of a re-think.

My crime thriller novel  In For The Kill  is now available to download from my official web site absolutely FREE but for ONE WEEK only! This is part of an International promotion called Read An E Book Week  which runs from from 7-13 March 2010. In For The Kill , which is set on the south coast of England, will be featured in Read an E-Book Week, which was first recognised in 2004 and has been growing ever since along with the number of new e reading devices on the market. Read an E-Book Week is a not-for-profit week set aside to inform the public about reading electronically. Authors, publishers, vendors, the media and readers world-wide join in the promotional week to promote electronic reading. In For The Kill is a compelling, gripping tale of what happens to one man when his identity is stolen and his life descends into a living nightmare. Published in the UK it has also been translated into Indonesian, Polish and will soon be available in Turki...

I spent nearly all day yesterday working on the next Inspector Horton novel, except for a break to have my hair cut. It was a good day's work but at the same time one of those frustrating writing days, not because the words didn't flow but because I am on revisions and I was tying up the last three chapters of the novel and trying to make sure that everything fell into place.  Once I've worked my way through the ending it will be back to the beginning again to ensure that the novel flows and all the clues are there, and they are if you look for them; it may be just a hint, a throw away line in a conversation, or something tucked in the middle of a list or in a dialogue, but clues and red herrings abound. I'll also be examining the characters, perhaps adding a little more colour to them, now that I know their motivations so well, and then ensuring that the novel has pace and the sequence of events is accurate taking into account the qui...

I spent most of yesterday writing - well what else was there to do, it rained all day! Now the sun is shining, it's a beautiful morning and soon I'll be putting on those walking boots and striking out along the Hayling Coastal Path, returning home this afternoon to continue with the fifth draft of Inspector Andy Horton number six.  And I think I have a title.  It came to me this morning while cleaning my teeth, as these things often do.  It's either then or at three o'clock in the morning, which is not so good because once you start thinking about things at that time of the day/night you can't get back to sleep again. I'm not going to reveal the title yet because I need to mull it over for a while and check out who else, if anyone, has used it.  There is no copyright on novel titles, and many have been used before, but I want to make sure that it's not already been used by a famous author.  I have a vague suspicion I have heard it before, b...

I was inspired to dash off this little ditty this afternoon after reading a 'Rhyme On Publishing' on a great little blog written by Sophie Dean http://www.bitbookish.com/2010/02/08/rhyme/ Writers in Rhyme We toil away for days and days With pen and PC in a writer’s haze Creating, researching, dreaming up plots Until many months later we have something hot. We hone and revise until sick of the thing Then it’s off to the editor with an e mail ping. We wait for weeks and with bated breath Has it been given the kiss of death? Some minor changes just here and there We make them grudgingly, but with flair. Copy edits and proofs keep us very busy And the cover image makes us feel rather dizzy! Then silence follows for weeks, maybe more Until a lumpy parcel arrives at our door. The novel’s in print, hurrah you cry But are sales and marketing giving it a try? If you’re really lucky, or quite well known You’ll get some PR from a girl called Joan. Is it selling wel...

It's a white world on the South Coast of England today and in the Solent area where I live, which is so unusual because Portsmouth, Hayling Island, Southampton and the Isle of Wight so rarely gets snow. I took the opportunity this morning of donning my wet weather gear and walking across the fields near my house ( sorry, didn't get a photo of that). The snow was then about two inches deep which I know will send many readers from the north of England, Wales and Scotland, not to mention some parts of America, rolling about with laughter - call that snow?  I hear you say.  But since arriving home it has continued to snow and we're now up to about six inches which is incredible for the soft south.  And ever since watching The Day After Tomorrow I'm thinking could this be the end of the world? Will I have to burn all my books to keep warm?  Perish the thought. It also reminds me of a fantastic crime novel, one of my favourites, Blood upon the Snow by Hilda Lawre...

My wrists ache, my shoulders are sore, my brain was spinning all night and I feel guilty because I didn't e mail or phone any of my friends, I barely looked at Facebook and Twitter, and my husband got about half a dozen words out of me - which might be a blessing, of course, as far as he's concerned. Why?  Because I was grappling with the plot of the next DI Horton marine mystery crime novel, and couldn't for the life of me fathom out who had done it!  That might sound weird, as I'm the author, surely I should know, but this often happens.  I have several suspects in the frame, then I start thinking, 'no, it's too obvious it's him,' or 'It can't be her because she's got no motive.'  I could, of course, invent motives aplenty, but it's got to ring true. Now, after bashing out a sketchy end on my keyboard yesterday evening, considering it overnight and looking at it in the fresh light of day, I believe it will work.  I hope it will ...